Issue 04

ISSUE

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H I G H M O U N T A I N H E AV E N

Haute Route Compact K I W I C RU I S I N G

The Lake Taupo Challenge QU O INC K T ESSPTI N

Superavi Ti, Kinesis T2 R E T RO

Hell of the Ashdown

FREE

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E D I TO R I A L I SSU E 4

New Year, New Look.

C OV E R H A U T E RO U T E C O M PA C T PH OTO G R A P H E R : M A N U M O L L E E D I TO R RICHARD HALLETT

richard@sportifmagazine.com DEPUTY EDITOR D AV I D H A R M O N

david@sportifmagazine.com SUB EDITOR JOSEPHINE MARSH

josephine@sportifmagazine.com CONTRIBUTORS D AV I D A RT H U R , A L E X B E R E S F O R D , G I L W H I T N E Y, T I M L AW S O N, T R E VO R WA R D, S T E V E M E E RT E N S , A D R I A N B E L L , P A U L GRELE PH OTO G R A P H E R S I N D U S T RY I M A G E S , D AV I D H A R M O N , I A N G I L B E RT, S. GULPER, MANU MOLLE, S P O RT Z H U B , T A U P O C A M E R A C L U B , W I G W O R L A N D , S P O RT I V E PH OTO AD SALES PAT R I C K T R A I N O R

sales@sportifmagazine.com DESIGN PA R E N T

www.madebyparent.com PUBLISHER P RO J E C T 7 R A C I N G @ S P O RT I F M A G U K S P O RT I F M A G A Z I N E W W W. S P O RT I F M A G A Z I N E . C O M

SCENE / RIDES / SKILLS / KIT / P R E P / R E T RO / N E W S 04 THE SCENE 08 H A U T E RO U T E C O M PA C T 12 K I W I L A K E C RU I S E 17 CAMBIUM C15 SADDLE 18 RAIN JACKETS 20 THE LURE OF LOWER GEARS 26 KENESIS T2 27 S U P E R AV I 28 C O N T I N E N T A L G R A N D S P O RT RACE 30 O P T I M A L S P O RT I V E C A N D E N C E 32 C A M P L I K E A P RO 34 AU DA X : T H E S I M P L E L I F E 38 L A P E DA L S D E C L I P

Welcome to 2015 and the new look Sportif Magazine. This year we will be throwing open the garage doors and clipping in to feature the very best of sportive riding from not just the British Isles but around the globe, starting in style with spectacular rides from The Alps, New Zealand and Catalunya.

The UK sportive scene is changing.

Participants are becoming more experienced, discerning and rightly more demanding. Organisers are having to rise to the challenge. With new multi-stage, classic and mini events springing up it’s an exciting time but it’s the arrival of a UCI sanctioned Grand Fondo to Britain that signals a change. Never before have we had a closed road, mass participation racing event on these shores. Make no mistake, the Tour of Cambridgeshire is a game changer.

But in this brave new world we still have our feet planted firmly on the ground with a look at great all round bikes from Kinesis and Superavi, the lowdown on training camps, winter rain jackets and Richard Hallett talks you through that most odious of tasks out in the cold and wet, fitting a tyre and tube correctly.

In our first six months we worked hard to bring you, the sportive community, relevant, entertaining and beautiful articles and as we go forward into 2015 expect that philosophy to continue.

41 HELL OF THE ASHDOWN

Ride safe

44 CLINCHER TYRE FITTING

D AV I D H A R M O N DEPUTY EDITOR

48 REGIONAL NEWS

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THE SCENE

The hardest challenge ride 2015 is Paris-Brest-Paris year, which means that, right now, audax riders across the UK are contemplating the process of qualification for the biggest challenge in non-competitive cycling. ‘P-B-P’ is held every four years and the amateur randonnee has been going since 1931; the professional road race that gave the event its name took place every 10 years from 1891 and was last held in 1951.

Its route covers around 1200km, has roughly 8000m of climbing and is mostly held on minor roads. There are categories for recumbent cycles and tandems and, with a choice of three maximum ride times, a performance target to suit almost every cyclist. It’s a ride that should be on every cyclosportif ’s target list and it doesn’t come around again until 2019, so what’s involved and how do you get a start?

Riding P-B-P is not simply a matter of filling in an entry form and hitting ‘send’ or popping it in a letter box along with the required fee. Instead, successful applicants will have completed a Super Randonneur series of rides, each designated a Brevet Randonneur Mondiaux (BRM) event, to show that they have the physical and,

importantly, mental toughness that will be needed during the big ride itself.

Comprising rides at distances of 200, 300, 400 and 600km, the Super Randonneur series is an audax benchmark that can be undertaken in any year. However, aspiring P-B-P participants must complete the series during the first half of the year in which Paris-Brest-Paris is being held in order to qualify. They must also be members of an organization affiliated to the Audax Club Parisien, which organises the event.

British cyclists hoping to take part will need to join Audax UK, select their four qualifying rides from the bulging 2015 event calendar and then ensure they complete the four qualifying rides within specific time windows. The 600km, for example, must be ridden between 8th May and 21st June.

Then there’s the question of which

category to choose. Setting off first, at around 16:00hrs on Sunday 16 August, the Vedettes have just 80hrs to complete the distance and have no minimum time limit, which means there is what amounts to a race to be first back amongst the leaders. ‘Special cycles’ start next, followed by the Touristes – the largest group, with a 90hr time limit – from 18:00 hrs. The following morning, the Randonneurs set forth with the aim of getting back within 84 hours.

If this isn’t enough to tax the old brain cells, there’s a pre-registration scheme in place of considerable complexity that might make life easier or might not, but for details of it, event regulations, advice and much more, Audax UK is the place to go. And there’s no time to waste.

WWW.AUKWEB.NET

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Tour of Cambridgeshire Gran Fondo and Chrono unveiled Peterborough is to host a Continental-style closed-road gran fondo that incorporates the first ever qualifying event for the UCI World Cycling Tour (the amateur world championships) to be held in the UK. Kicking off a spectacular weekend of cycling on June 6-7, there’s a UCI-sanctioned closed-road time trial on the opening day.

As we reported in Sportif issue three, the UCWT is a series of UCI-sanctioned events held all over the world. There are 15 qualifier events in places as widespread as Australia, Brazil and Greece, and the top 25 per cent of each age group in each event goes through to the 2015 UWCT world championships in Aalborg, Denmark, in September. If you participate in at least three, you don’t have to finish in the top 25 per cent of your age group – you automatically get a ticket to the championships. Or if you’re very lucky, 21 wild card places for the UWCT world championships, awarded based on finishing positions, will be given away at the Peterborough round. Up until this year, the closest qualifying events to the UK were La Look in France and the Gran Fondo Eddy Merckx in Belgium.

While the world’s best sportivistes are slugging it out in what is to all intents and purposes a road race at the front, there are spaces for a maximum of 10,000 riders who might prefer to take things a little easier and enjoy the entirely traffic-free 132km course that features a mix of rolling Cambridgeshire

countryside and flat fenland. With roads closed riders will be able to echelon against the inevitable strong winds that go with the fenland territory.

The 28km time trial the day before is also a qualifier for the UWCT time trial world championships and has places for 700 riders, all of who will start from a Tour de Francestyle start ramp at 30-second intervals and will be timed electronically. The organisers describe the terrain as ‘sporting’, but with flat sections where you can get your rhythm going. The top 25 per cent of finishers in each age category qualify for the UCWT time trial world championships, also in Aalborg, Denmark, alongside the road world championship. The men’s and women’s overall winners get £1,500 each in prize money, with other prizes to be announced.

The winners of each age classification in the time trial will be presented with a UWCT winner’s jersey while the first three will receive UWCT medals. Prize money for the gran fondo winners is to be announced.

Both events start and finish at Peterborough Arena, a huge multi-purpose venue with 250 acres of outdoor space, parking for 22,000 cars and the capacity to stage anything for 15 to 100,000 people.

Most importantly, you’ll finish in front of the grandstand – arms in the air optional.

WWW.THETOUROFCAMBRIDGESHIRE.COM

Giro d’Italia legacy event for the next 3 years In Northern Ireland The legacy of the Giro d’Italia’s trip to Belfast is to be seen over the next 3 years with the announcement that the race’s organiser’s RCS, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and promoters Shadetree Sports have entered into an agreement to host a Grand Fondo Northern Ireland following the success of the Grand Tour’s visit to the country in 2014.

Andrea Trabuio, Head of Mass Events, RCS Sport said, “following the great success of the 2014 Giro d’Italia Big Start from Belfast, in the amazing scenery of the Northern Ireland coastline, we are very happy to come back to this fantastic country.

We are sure that this “Made in Italy” event will be a big success and will positively promote Northern Ireland.”

According to the event organisers riders will experience the Giro d’Italia feel on fully closed roads and as part of the global RCS Grand Fondo series look to make the event one of the best in the world. There was even a hint at the launch that on the racing front there might be a return of the 5 Day professional Tour of Ireland as leisure cycling continues to boom across north and south.

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THE SCENE

Dragon Tour 2015 Last year – the Dragon Devil; this year – the Dragon Tour. Once again, Dragon Ride founder Lou Lusardi has upped the anti for riders hoping to be able to boast that they have completed the hardest of the year’s Dragon Ride routes. After all, why suffer on just one day’s hard riding when you can suffer on three?

The multi-day format is beginning to gain traction in the sportive world as organisers and competitors look for the next big challenge. Pioneered in the UK by the Tour of Wessex, it provides a very different experience to that of a one day ride; not only is it a lot harder to complete a challenging route on three successive days, but the format offers riders the chance to see a lot more of whatever spectacular local scenery the event offers up.

The Dragon Tour starts on Friday, 5 June with an exploration of the lovely Gower peninsula, which lies to the west of Swansea.

Justly renowned for its exceptional beauty, the Gower is also extremely hilly with a network of quiet lanes linking steep hillsides on both sides of the stretch of land. As ever, Lusardi has gone the extra mile to find the most vicious hills available and promises that day one’s 100km ride takes in three of the Gower’s four hills with double gradient

chevrons on the relevant Ordnance Survey map.

Tired legs will take Dragon Tourists in the opposite direction on day two with a northerly pedal into the westernmost edge of the Brecon Beacons. They will climb the Black Mountain and pass the stunning Carreg Cennin castle before tackling the 25percent monster that is the Betws Mountain. The pleasant ride back into Swansea will provide a valuable opportunity to loosen fatigued legs before the onslaught.

With more than 2000m of climbing in their legs, Dragon Tourists might decide

to pass on the 300km Dragon Devil route on day three, but it’s a fair bet that many won’t. In any case, they’ll have the option of joining the first departing wave of whichever distance is chosen.

For this first year, the Dragon Ride’s organisers are offering 500 places on the Tour. If it sells out, Lou Lusardi will have to think up something pretty crazy to go one better next year.

WWW.HUMANRACE.CO.UK

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Battle for the New Forest still raging Is the New Forest’s high-profile antipathy towards sportives just the beginning of a bigger backlash?

The New Forest National Park, a 200-square mile area of open pasture, heath and ancient forest in Hampshire and Wiltshire, harbours some of the original sportive saboteurs: in 2013 the Wiggle Spring Sportive and New Forest 100 were both attacked. Drawing pins and mud were spread across the road, signs were torn down and motorists drove deliberately slowly.

The following year, the National Park Authority voted to reject a Boris Bike-style hire scheme – which would have been the first in a rural area – due to what a report called ‘a major anti-cycling sentiment [that] has come to the fore in the wake of large-scale cycle sportive events which have impacted on local people’. Such cycling heavyweights as Chris Boardman and Jens Voigt, who has

held his charity event in the New Forest for the last two years, had publicly backed the scheme and British Cycling had urged the NPA to reconsider.

The scheme would have been funded entirely by Department for Transport money, and the NPA in November had to give £1.5 million back.

As we went to press a new online petition (http://goo.gl/wUgz0F) created by Mike Stead of Whitchurch, asked the NPA to ‘prioritise cycling in the Management Plan 2015-2020 as transport and recreation for park residents and visitors alike’. However, the petition appeared to have stalled at 140 signatures – not very impressive considering the Wiggle sportives attract 2,000 riders.

Meanwhile in Biggin Hill, Kent, a sign appeared on a lamppost in October addressed to ‘cycling clubs’. It branded them ‘lycra louts’ and ordered them not to ‘attach

arrows in this area they will be removed… blocking our roads and polluting our countryside with orange plastic signs’.

Message and medium caused both alarm and hilarity on social media and prompted local newspaper the Sevenoaks Chronicle to run a poll asking readers: ‘Do you think cycling clubs are a menace on our roads?’ The results were Yes 8.57% (491 votes) and No 91.42% (5,240 votes). It seems there’s a surprisingly overwhelming level of support for cyclists by local people.

As ever, the situation is as clear as that layer of mud laid on especially for the New Forest 100. Our advice is to always follow the Highway Code, be courteous to other road users, don’t urinate in view of the road and take gel wrappers etc home with you.

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RIDES

HAUTE ROUTE COMPACT Live the touristeroutier experience WORDS T R E VO R WA R D PH OTO G R A P H Y MANU MOLLE

In the early days of the Tour de France, when 250-mile long stages, pre-dawn starts and ambushes by rival fans were the norm, a brave band of independent riders known as touriste-routiers would finance their own efforts against the professional trade teams.

After crossing the finish line at the end of each day’s stage, they would have to find their own accommodation for the night and a restaurant they could afford. This would usually involve having to cycle even more miles and share a room with a fellow touriste-routier, whose standards of personal hygiene might leave a lot to be desired.

And so it was, more than a 100 years later, I found myself emulating the earliest touriste-routiers in a “taster” version of the Haute Route Alps, which describes itself as “the highest and toughest cyclosportive in the world”…

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No other cycling event – professional or amateur – is more slickly packaged than the Haute Route series of week-long, multi-stage sportives. You can now take your choice from the mountains of the Dolomites, Alps or Pyrenees. A vast team of spin doctors, photographers, filmmakers and social media experts work behind the scenes making sure the image of Haute Route portrayed in blogs, tweets, books and videos is as relentlessly aspirational – and ultimately bland – as a Vogue fashion spread. If you’ve

ever wondered where a large chunk of the £1,200 entry fee goes – yes, you read that right, and that doesn’t include flights or accommodation – then now you know.

So when the organisers invited me to take part in the inaugural ‘Alps Compact’ – just the prologue and first two mountain stages of the full Haute Route Alps – I jumped at the chance to find out if the reality would live up to that airbrushed image. With an entry fee of £278, it’s still

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not cheap, and I’d still have to shell out extra for flights, accommodation, evening meals and a shuttle bus back to the start.

But based on the blitz of marketing propaganda – including an “official film” and “souvenir” hardback book – I could look forward to stunning scenery, a cool jersey and a level of camaraderie that appeared to consist of lots of sweaty strangers putting their arms around me whenever I looked out of puff.

Nowhere, unsurprisingly, was there any mention of the fact that my first few hours in Geneva would be spent in a taxi driving around in circles looking for the “basic”, Haute Route-allocated accommodation I had paid £131 for on top of my entry fee. Only after an emergency phone call to the organisers did we eventually find the entrance to what turned out to be the 100-bunk bed dormitory of an underground nuclear fallout shelter which no-one I spoke to in Geneva knew even existed.

P RO L O G U E

GENEVA 9KM

The first business next day was cycling the 3km to the Start Village and getting my bike checked, receiving my bib number and claiming my goody bag.

After a couple of hours queuing with riders from countries as diverse as Brazil and Thailand, it was time for the Prologue.

We had a (scarily steep) professional start ramp and nine kilometres of closed dual carriageway alongside Lake Geneva to play with. My modest goal was to catch the rider in front of me – in fact I caught three of them, but only in the last 200 metres – and avoid being caught by the rider behind (accomplished). Now all I had to worry about was getting my bungalow-sized, officially-branded Haute Route travel bag the 3km uphill back to the nuclear bunker while riding my bike. Actually, I had another thing to worry about: I had no idea how to retrace my route back to the bunker, and the maps at the Start Village “Info Point” covered only the city centre.

Still, in the spirit of touriste-routiers like Jules Deloffre – who after completing every stage of the 1909 Tour would perform acrobatic tricks to raise money for his bed and board – I kept smiling and managed to find my way back before the 10-inch thick door to the bunker was locked promptly for the night at 10 pm.

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RIDES

THE EVENT ATTRACTS A WIDE RANGE OF ABILITIES AND EXPERIENCE

S TA G E O N E

GENEVA – MEGÈVE 130KM 3,100M Climbing Today’s climbs would be the cols de la Colombière, de la Croix Fry and des Aravis. A safety briefing the night before had warned us about the tunnel on the final descent being narrow and unlit. But what it hadn’t told us was the most important bit – it had a 90-degree right turn in the middle.

Elsewhere, the organization was efficient. We had a fleet of outriders patrolling the 440-strong peloton – though it had fractured into dozens of groups and solo riders as soon as we hit the steep lower ramps of the Colombière – and a team of marshals in every village and town manning roundabouts and even the most insignificant looking of junctions. They – and the volunteers providing us with hot food and a safe place to leave our bikes at each stage finish – had to stand around for hours waiting for me and the rest of the grupetto to arrive. Chapeau!

The event attracts a wide range of abilities and experience. On the slopes of the Croix Fry, I caught up with a rider paying more attention to the device on his stem than to the spectacular views. We never swapped names, but it turned out he was an ultra-

marathon runner who had recently taken up cycling for some variety in his training. We agreed that the key to success in endurance events was pacing yourself. It was at that exact moment that the device on his stem began beeping and he suddenly exclaimed with a mixture of apology and panic: “Sorry, I’ll have to slow down a bit, I’m over my 90 per cent threshold!”

It came as something of a shock at the end of the first stage to find that my hotel for the night was 6km further up the mountain. Even worse, the “Info Point” – yet again - didn’t have any maps. A group of fellow touriste-routiers had already set off. I resigned myself to having to follow them after I’d had my hot meal and a bit of a breather. Fortunately, by the time I felt sufficiently recovered, a shuttle bus with room for bikes had miraculously appeared.

Also fortunately, my room-mate for the night – a taciturn Frenchman called Laurent – had much better personal hygiene than Italian touriste-routier Giovanni Rossignoli, who completed the 1925 Tour wearing the same pair of shorts from start to finish.

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MEGÈVE – COURCHEVEL 130KM 3,700M Climbing This was the Queen stage – the Cormet de Roselend, at just under 2,000m, would be the highest point of the race. Before that, we had the climb up the Col des Saisies, where the average gradient of less than six percent is cruelly misleading because of a long stretch of downhill halfway up. The descent gave us spectacular views of Mont Blanc, and I felt a bit of a fraud stopping to take photographs until a couple of other riders joined me. After all, the thrill of a ride is surely as much in the scenery as your average speed?

As I overtook a rider wearing number 200 on the long haul up to the jagged crater and reservoir of the Cormet de Roselend, I was stung with a pang of shame rather than the usual glow of smugness. The rider I was leaving in my wake was Christian Haettich, who was halfway through completing the “Triple Crown” of the Dolomites, Alps and Pyrenees Haute Routes. You’ll know Christian if you ever meet him: as the result of a road accident in his youth, he has only one arm and one leg.

Each stage has a cut-off time, and I would be eliminated if I didn’t reach Courchevel by 15:45. Of more concern to me was whether there’d still be any hot food or massage slots available at that time.

I decided to make the most of the thrilling descent from the Cormet de Roselend, topping 100kph at one point, and arrived at the foot of the final, 20km climb with plenty of time to spare. But I was still living in fear of the sudden appearance of a red-clad

HAUTE ROUTE ESSENTIALS The 2015 series of Haute Route sportives – Alps, Dolomites, Pyrenees and Compact – will run from 15th August to 6th September. Full details of entry fees, routes and accommodation packages can be found at: www.hauteroute.org Good quality carbon road bikes are available for hire from Bcyclet in Geneva from £31 per day: www.bcyclet.com Thanks to rapha.cc for the emergency, last minute provision of their Classic Wind Jacket (essential on those long Alpine descents!)

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rider called Fergus Grant. If Fergus arrives at your side, you know you’re in trouble. He is the Haute Route’s official Lantern Rouge.

His role is to finish just inside the cut-off time and cajole/encourage/bribe any riders struggling in front of him. I looked over my shoulder at every hairpin, but his spectral form remained unseen, and I arrived at the finish with time to spare.

So would I recommend the Haute Route? Most people who’ve done it claim it’s the closest the amateur will get to the professional stage race experience. Well that may be the case if, as some riders did, you have your own support team travelling behind the race convoy and can afford the superior accommodation package.

But for the rest of us, it’s probably nearer to the experiences of Jules Deloffre, Giovanni Rossignoli and the other members of that heroic band of touriste-routiers.

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RIDES

KIWI LAKE CRUISE The Contact Lake Taupo Challenge WORDS S T E V E M E E RT E N S

S T A RT / F I N I S H

TAUPO 160KM 1650M Climbing

PH OTO G R A P H Y S P O RT Z H U B / T A U P O C A M E R A C L U B

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RIDES

The Contact Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge is New Zealand’s largest cycling event encompassing 20 different road and mountain biking event categories and featuring some of the most breathtaking scenery that New Zealand has to offer, which is saying a lot. For geographical perspective, Taupo is centrally located in the middle of the North Island and is an outdoor pursuits paradise. Lake Taupo itself is a huge freshwater expanse that nestles below some of NZ’s finest skiing mountains sprinkled with world class golf courses, incredible natural attractions and a vibrant tourist scene all of which add up to a wonderful adventure, irrespective of what time of year you visit.

In late November last year, over 7,400 keen competitors lined up to have a crack at the 38th Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge that, despite being a veteran meeting, shows no signs of slowing down.

Cycling in NZ has always been a popular pastime however over the past decade it has hit boom time. NZ has some of the best indoor track sprinters in the

world whilst also having high profile road riders making their mark in the peloton. As a result, cycling in NZ has never been more popular and seeing an event such as the Contact Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge first hand clearly demonstrates the sport is hugely popular with all walks of life, age, size and sex.

I lived in the UK for a number of years playing rugby and don’t have your usual cyclist’s physique having predominantly occupied the second or back rows but, enjoying a challenge, I was happy to jump right in. Riding the most popular category, the 160km Bike Barn Solo comprising one loop around Lake Taupo was my goal but the more I become involved with cyclists the more I realise that some of them are plain mad to cycle the distances that they do. The Extreme Enduro category at Taupo is a mere 8 laps, or 1,280kms of ‘what-the-heck-wasI-thinking’ around the lake and starts three entire days before the main event so my hat goes off to those people who complete that endurance ride.

I am a relatively athletic person who tries to keep fit but a key component of training for this event was something that I didn’t have a huge amount available to me, time. With a full time job, a wife and young family to support, training was not my highest priority, but that’s 90% of us right? The training I did do began about three months prior to the day during the NZ winter and averaging about 250kms of riding per week. Ironically as the days started getting longer and sunnier I had less and less time to train. My 2 year old boy wanted to spend more time outside than a test cricketer and as spring blossomed my 4 lawn gardens hit overdrive.

Taupo is cycle party central before the

event and by the time I got there the town was absolutely pumping. For a ride that began back in 1977 with just 26 friends it has become the ‘must do’ ride down under. So much so that it was included alongside iconic rides such as the Ronde van Vlaanderen in Belgium and South Africa’s Caper Argus Pick ‘n’ Pay Cycle Tour in the now defunct UCI Golden Bike Series.

Event registration and the accompanying expo are always slick, with participants moving through quickly, plenty of exciting information and with products and food available for cyclists of all flavours.

You can also get an on-site bike tune up, which I took full advantage of whilst I scared the life out of the sushi bar staff packing in the carbs in industrial quantities.

Weather in Taupo can be very changeable due to their proximity to the ski fields so I had kept a close eye out on the forecast leading up to the event and on the morning of the ride it dawned cool and crisp with a chance of rain later on. I dressed accordingly and headed off to the start area.

The event sets off in waves due to the large number of participants and there is a real buzz in the air and myriad of jersey hues on display. Be careful what you wish for though in a big event like this. I started off in the front group and immediately felt the pressure of a pace way above my training speeds. It’s a route of two halves, the first 80km is fairly constant hills as you head out to the back end of the lake and the second 80km is much flatter and faster accompanied by some of the finest views a cyclist is ever likely to see. My very loose plan was to try and conserve energy over the first half and absolutely empty the tank coming home and I pretty much managed to get this done, due more to weather conditions than design.

For a novice rider like myself the constant head wind we encountered after about 20kms with gusts and showers thereafter made for a tough day. I haven’t done too much group cycling but I do find the tactics fascinating. When you get in a bunch that matches your ability level you can absolutely fly along following the wheel without even thinking about things too much, a skill discussed in these very pages last issue, however if you are caught or dropped between bunches the tactics come much more into play. I had done a lot of solo training so I was used to working hard for long distances by myself and the trick is then to focus on your own ride and to ensure that you don’t empty too much out of the tank.

Every rider understands that a crucial part to any event is logistics. Support stations,

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volunteers, toilet stops, roadside support and signage all need to be well managed in order to provide participants with a positive experience on the day. Throughout the ride the volunteers and support were absolutely world class. There were people constantly cheering and clapping each and every rider. If like me you respond well to positive feedback as it takes my mind off cold, wet weather or my sore body, Taupo is one of the best supported events out there.

We are fortunate in NZ to have breathtaking scenery. From lush rolling farmland to thick forest through to the spectacular Lake Taupo itself, a 160km highlights reel of NZ’s beauty and I can honestly say I really enjoyed taking in all the contrasts as it made for such a varied and exciting day.

Halfway through I found myself mentally refreshed as I knew I had got past the worst part. It had been wet and cold and now the sun and wind were at my back as I began to head towards the finish line starting with a lovely 2km winding descent down Kuratau Hill – marking the beginning of where the ride hugs the Lake Taupo shoreline past small sleepy villages whose residents had all made an effort to come out and support. The flat terrain and tail wind was great fun and I found myself in a group where we were getting up to 50km per hour

without too much effort however at the back of everyone’s mind was the absolutely soul destroying Hatepe Hill, one of those climbs that every rider dreads.

The Taupo organisers have a slightly warped sense of humour some would say but all part of the event’s character and kindly put out signs along the course designed to mess with your head. These signs included at smiley face after just 10km, quickly followed up by an angry face showing that we still had 150km to go. The signage for Hatepe Hill was like a mosquito in your bedroom at night, consuming your thoughts…quiet yet bloody annoying.

Hatepe Hill is THE hill of the 160km route, it lies about 130km into the parcours and is an absolute gut buster climbing steeply for around 2km and splits a bunch up completely. I had ridden Hatepe Hill twice in training and knowing what to expect and how much I’d already suffered on its slopes, I just put my head down and got to work as I knew from the top of the hill the descent back into Taupo and the finish area was both quick and scenic.

An agonising 12 minutes later I reached the top of Hatepe Hill just as my body was starting to have another serious argument with me but I knew from here there was only another 25km or so to go so taking a big drink of electrolytes and I got back to

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work. I knew I wouldn’t make my goal time thanks to the headwind in the first half but I didn’t let this deter me one bit. Finishing a challenging event like this is something that I can be proud of so that is just what I did.

Coming into Taupo you automatically shift up a gear, it’s the party effect of a whole town ‘en fete’ There were children riding in their events, tourists, campervans, cheering and supporters for miles making for a magnificent 5km even though my body had been painfully protesting for the past 2 hours. Catching sight of my wife cheering me was awesome and a quick glimpse of my little man having a sleep in his pushchair, which seemed like a very good idea, brought a smile to my face after a rookie based 6 hour effort.

I can very easily see why the Contact Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge is as popular as it is. It is superbly run and the riders are treated to an incredible day of sightseeing in one of NZ’s greatest tourism locations. For all those worldly cyclists reading this article I would seriously recommend you look into riding it in 2015. I am pretty confident that you will not be disappointed and when you do get here, spare a thought for the 8 lappers…who knows, some may still be going round.

WWW.CYCLECHALLENGE.COM

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16

Traditional Brooks comfort and more WORDS RICHARD HALLETT

Everybody knows Brooks leather saddles are supposed to be the ACME of riding comfort – once ‘broken in’. The venerable Smethwick firm’s newest offering, the Cambium, manages the feat without needing the breakin period and does so using materials that avoid the big problem with leather – its vulnerability in wet weather.

The Cambium’s frame is s sturdy affair comprising stainless steel rails sitting in cast aluminium plates. The rear, or ‘cantle’ plate maintains Brooks tradition, featuring slots designed to accept saddle bag loops and a riveted ‘Brooks’ name plate. The upper is attached to it using short, broad-headed Torx screws that make it easily replaced if worn or damaged. The really clever bit, however, is the upper itself, which is a one piece vulcanized rubber moulding covered in a thin layer of woven organic cotton and, according to Brooks, ‘structural textile’.

Using rubber for the upper instead of the rigid plastic used for the shell of most synthetic saddles avoids a fundamental problem; rigid shells require a soft covering layer – usually foam or gel - to spread

pressure and soak up bumps and vibration.

Such materials work up to a point, but that point comes when they can’t be compressed or displaced any further and the sat-on surface becomes effectively rigid.

Rubber is, of course, elastic and, like the butt leather used in traditional Brooks saddles, ‘gives’ under the weight of the rider, spreading loads and minimising pressure.

This elasticity is also highly effective at soaking up road bumps and vibration, which is why leather saddles are so comfortable on long-distance rides.

On first inspection, the Cambium’s upper, which lacks any sort of cushioning and has a hard surface like a new leather saddle, looks incapable of offering any sort of ride comfort at all. In fact, it is astonishingly good out of the box. Two of Sportif ’s correspondents rode Cambiums from new in the 225 mile Rapha Manchester-London ride; both found them excellent even at the end of a 14-hour day.

There are three versions: the C17 and ladies’ C17s and the C15, which is narrower.

The C17’s dimensions are said to be based

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B RO O K S

CAMBIUM C15 SADDLE £105

on the classic leather Brooks B17, which will please audax riders and tourists. Colours are Natural, Rust, Slate and Black and the C15’s sleek shape, which bears comparison with the styling of many top-flight racing saddles, looks good on a lightweight road bike although the saddle’s 415g may put off riders concerned about weight.

That’s the only proviso. While the Cambium is a radical departure from the regular Brooks fare, it maintains the Smethwick form’s solid tradition of exceptional ride comfort and makes it more accessible. And there’s no need to worry about getting it wet.

WWW.BROOKSENGLAND.COM

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KIT CASTELLI

SOTTILE £75

RAIN JACKETS A staple of British cycling attire Thanks to our soggy island climate, a waterproof shell layer is a staple of every British cyclist’s wardrobe.

However, the type you have in there is determined to a large extent by your attitude to riding in rain: do you peer out of the rain-lashed window, grimace and settle down in front of the EastEnders omnibus or do you pull on your rain gear and pedal happily off through the puddles?

We look at rain jackets for each of the above types, plus a wildcard for those on a tight budget.

The type of rain jacket you see the pro peloton donning if it starts raining is semi-transparent so trade team kit and race number are still visible. The style has something of the prophylactic about it, but that hasn’t stopped it from going forth and multiplying so that virtually every brand offers one.

The Castelli Sottile is a good example of the genre. It is made from a super-light nylon-polyester fabric with a slight stretch to it. Castelli claims this high-tech fabric is waterproof, windproof and breathable. To bolster breathability it has soft mesh panels under the arms. The same mesh also lines the high collar for comfort next to skin.

The cut is snug with a dropped tail, and simple black elastic cinches in the cuffs and waist. It has a full-length zip and also a zip at the back for a ‘pass-through pocket’ giving access to jersey pockets underneath – there are no pockets in the jacket itself.

There’s a reflective zip tab at the front and two on the back. We found the fit not quite snug enough. Compared with other jackets there’s a lot of flapping at the sleeves, which also tend to ride up in the wind and

rain because the elastic cuff grippers aren’t tight enough.

Water resistance is good, but its lightweight construction means the seams are not taped and if you’re out in rain for a prolonged period, water does get in.

However, good breathability and ventilation mean no boiling in the bag.

As a pure race cape that weighs nothing and packs down very small, the Sottile is up there with the best. Castelli has recently launched the Sottile Due, which looks to be skinnier on the arms and may address the flappiness of our original sample.

WWW.SADDLEBACK.CO.UK

18 ASSOS

RS.STURMPRINZ EVO £349.99 Yes, it really does cost that much and we’re going to stick our necks out and say it’s worth every penny. We said earlier that you are either somebody who goes out cycling in the rain or somebody who stays in and watches EastEnders. Well, the sturmPrinz can turn you from latter into the former. You’re essentially paying for a switch to be flicked that makes you enjoy riding in the rain, and what cyclist wouldn’t give their right arm for that?

Assos says the sturmPrinz holds a very special place within its collection, because it was originally developed for its test team with no intention for it to go into production.

It is made from a fabric called Triton that was designed by, is made for, and is used, by Assos exclusively. That’s for the majority of the jacket, which is made up of 25 pattern pieces, seven different textiles and 13 components.

Like all the latest Assos jerseys and jackets it fits very closely and even feels as though it’s pulling on your shoulders when you’re standing upright, but the moment

you’re bending forward in a cycling position it’s as if you’re not wearing it. There are elastic shoulder inserts to improve movement, but while they work a treat, the black wetlook fabric is sure to divide opinion.

Around the back, there are openings that allow you to reach into your jersey pockets without fumbling with a zip. These also serve as ventilation ports.

For visibility in the gloom, the sturmPrinz has more reflective tape than either of the others.

In fact, the sturmPrinz has more of everything than every other rain jacket on the market. Its performance in the rain is simply unbelievable. The only thing it can’t do is fold away into a jersey pocket, but you can guarantee Assos are working on that as we speak.

WWW.YELLOW-LIMITED.COM

P RO V I S I O N

AQUA REPEL £40 Pro Vision, the brand of double national road race champion Steve Joughin, has a well-earned reputation for producing nononsense, good value, good-looking racing kit, and the Aqua Repel jacket is all of those things.

Although it is little more than half the price of the Castelli, it is much better than half as good. Granted it doesn’t have the breathability, but it has the rain resistance, enhanced by taped seams. The extra material of those taped seams, although only a relatively small amount, means that the Pro Vision doesn’t fold down quite as small as the Castelli, but much smaller than the Assos, which is not designed to fold down at all.

The fabric is heavier than that of a pure race cape – but has the advantage of being tougher.

The Aqua Repel has a snugger cut than the Castelli - closer at the wrists and higher at the neck - and it also has a waterproof zipped pocket at the back.

The useful reflective bands around the wrists suggest it is also aimed at commuters.

In addition there are three reflective strips at the back.

Due to its lack of breathability the Pro Vision is not a jacket to put on before you leave the house. Things can get clammy inside it very quickly and there’s no backup mesh to let the heat and moisture out.

However, as an emergency jacket to whip out when the heavens open, whether you’re riding to work or competing in a road race, it’s a very good option, especially considering its low price.

WWW.PROVISIONCLOTHING.CO.UK

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By happy coincidence, road cycling’s major component manufacturers have been offering progressively smaller lowest gear ratios in almost exact proportion to the growth in popularity of cyclo-sportives. It is, of course, always possible that the two factors have evolved without affecting each other but, in any case, it is at least arguable that, were road bike gear ratios stuck where they were in, say, 1998, there’d be fewer people keen to take up an activity practically defined by its taste for steep hills.

Back then, ‘road’ bike meant racing bike, running gearing best saved for racing.

This was based on the classic 53/39 chainring combo sitting on a 130mm (Shimano pattern) or 135mm (Campagnolo) Bolt Circle Diameter BCD spider. Prior to that, the even wider 144mm BCD used on Campagnolo’s legendary Record and Super Record chainsets allowed a minimum inner ring with 42 teeth; bottom gears have been getting lower for a long time.

THE GEAR RATIOS AVAILABLE TO THE MODERN SPORTIVE RIDER WOULD HAVE DELIGHTED MANY TOURING CYCLISTS A COUPLE OF DECADES AGO

21

While it was one thing for professional racing cyclists to soar up mountain passes on 39x26, it was another entirely for the enthusiastic amateur, as I found that year during the Gran Fondo Campagnolo and the ’98 Etape du Tour. Getting over the first climb in either event on such a high gear wasn’t too hard, but it meant I had to push harder on the pedals than was ideal, resulting in the early onset of fatigue and a torrid second half during both.

An alternative was available then as now, although the 110mm BCD format had yet to become known as ‘compact’. I rode a TA Zephyr 110mm BCD chainset with 50/36 ‘rings in 1999 for Paris-BrestParis and the Super Randonneur series of qualifying rides that preceded it. At the time favoured by tourists and audax riders, this chainring combination was clearly better suited to non-competitive riding than the 53/39 standard combo. As road cycling gained adherents during the early Noughties, the compact was taken up by Shimano and Campagnolo, quickly becoming the sportive rider’s favourite.

Meanwhile, road cassettes got bigger, acquiring additional sprockets, most of them on the inner side of the freewheel.

26 teeth gave way to 27 and then 29 before capitulating utterly to the massive 32 tooth monster currently the low gear lover’s best friend. The gear ratios available to the modern sportive rider would have delighted many touring cyclists a couple of decades ago. By allowing riders of all abilities to tackle stiff climbs at a comfortable pace, they have opened up the world of performance road cycling and helped make sportives the fastest-growing discipline on two wheels.

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HOW LOW CAN YOU GO? Making life easy is the key to an enjoyable sportive

WORDS ALEX BERESFORD PA U L G R Ê L É

Don’t let the one-size-fits-all gearing that comes with your bike cramp your style. If your calves or quads are giving you warning twinges when you’re asking them to winch you up a 20 per cent climb after 80 miles, don’t ignore them. Perhaps a lower bottom gear that allows you to spin rather than grind will keep them happy and let you finish strongly. By the same token, if you’re getting dropped on a descent because you’ve run out of gears you may need to rethink your ratios.

You don’t have to stick with the chainrings and cassette that your bike was fitted with when you bought it – or even the derailleur and crankset. Experimenting with ratios is a great way to improve your performance in sportives and at the same time learn more about your strengths and weaknesses. And if you need an excuse to tinker with bikes, there’s no better one than this.

Most sportive bikes come equipped with a 50/34 chainset – known as a compact – and, typically, an 11-25 or 11-28 rear cassette. This gives a good spread of ratios to allow most people to climb hills and descend effectively. But if you want to go off-piste in gearing terms, what are your options?

If you’re a fit, fast rider and are strong on hills then you might prefer a traditional racing set-up of 53/39. Traditional racing gears for a vintage event like the Eroica might be 52/42. Paired with this you might opt for a closer-ratio cassette, such as 1223, so that you can maintain your optimum cadence on rolling terrain.

More recently, an in-between chainset – the 52/36 mid compact – has been introduced to cater for those who can’t quite make up their minds.

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23

LIMITED POSSIBILITIES Although an improvement functionally and aesthetically – not to mention an instant success with sportivistes – SRAM’s WiFLi system limits the possibility of using close-ratio gearing. It’s true that with most triples there is a significant amount of gear duplication, but the advantage of having so many is that it’s always possible to find the perfect gear. With WiFLi it’s the cassette rather than the chainrings that supplies the wide spread of gears, and that means trading the inconvenience and extra weight of a third chainring for the big jumps of an 11-32 cassette.

Still, the people have spoken and now Shimano also offers longer cage versions of its rear derailleurs from Ultegra downwards.

However, from Sora downwards it also still offers a triple chainset with 50/39/30 chainrings, so the triple is evidently still alive and spinning – though clearly relegated to the bottom of the groupset ladder.

Meanwhile Campagnolo, the traditionalist’s and the connoisseur’s groupset manufacturer, offers a triple in its Athena, Centaur and Veloce ranges, the three least expensive. No triple for Record – the second-string groupset – but a longercage rear derailleur is available alongside the short one.

A pattern is emerging; of the big three SRAM, the inventor of the wide-ratio cassette and longer cage (technically called ‘medium cage’) offers it from its top groupset, Red, downwards. Unsurprisingly, SRAM doesn’t make a triple at all. Shimano also has longer-cage options from Ultegra, the second groupset in its hierarchy, downwards, and triples available with its three cheapest.

It’s an identical situation with Campagnolo.

It appears that those looking for a highend, high-performance bike are on a hiding to nothing. Triples are discouraged. The compact is here to stay.

LOWER THAN LOW

HOW TO WORK OUT GEAR SIZE Originally a high bicycle’s (aka a penny farthing) gear ratio would be expressed as the diameter of its drive wheel in inches. When ‘safety’ bicycles became popular people wanted to keep using the familiar system. It’s relatively easily calculated; divide the number of teeth on the chainring by the number of teeth on the sprocket and multiply by the diameter of the drive wheel. Because diameter varies according to what size tyre you’re running, generally a figure of 27” for the drive wheel diameter of a 700C bike is used so that you end up with a nominal value that everyone understands.

For example if you’re on the 50-tooth chainring and in the 15 sprocket and you’re riding a standard bike with 700C wheels, this is the calculation: 50 divided by 15 times 27 equals 89.9. You’re riding an 89.9in gear.

Can you go even lower than 34x28, the lowest gear possible with a standard shortcage derailleur? In the olden days a very low gear meant a triple chainset. Particularly for touring, when a bike is fully laden with everything but the kitchen sink and still needs to go up hills, going close to achieving a 1:1 ratio – where for every revolution of the crankset the wheel also goes through 360° – has always been desirable.

However, throughout the Noughties the inner ring of a triple – known as a granny ring – became steadily more embarrassing for anyone whose bike didn’t have bulging Ortliebs attached to it. So SRAM, at the time the new kid on the road block, or rather cassette, came to the rescue.

Launched in 2010, SRAM’s entrylevel Apex system sought to kill off the triple chainset. With the cycling boom and the rise of the sportive came a less fit amateur cyclist who nevertheless wanted to get up steep hills and not resort to the heavy, unwieldy triple.

So especially for them – cannily recognising that this was the biggest growth area in cycling – the American company unveiled a road-specific derailleur with a longer cage that could wrap enough chain to allow a 32-tooth sprocket to be used with a 50/34 compact chainset. Previously a 28t sprocket was the recommended maximum for a short-cage derailleur. The new bottom gear of 34x32 was at least as low as that of most road triples. SRAM called it WiFLi – ‘wider, faster, lighter’ and it proved such a success that WiFLi options have been extended to its top-end groupset too.

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KIT

WILL I BE UNDERGEARED ON A COMPACT?

Q&A

The short answer is no. Work it out using the formula in ‘how to work out gear size’.

A top gear of 50x11 gives you 122.7 inches.

The classic racing top gear of 53x12 gives you a slightly lower gear of 119.25 inches.

If your cadence is 100rpm in 53x12 you’re doing approximately (it can vary slightly due to tyre size) 36mph. Most of us will only reach 36mph when we’re going downhill.

Any faster that and it’s generally better to make yourself as aerodynamic as possible and freewheel rather than pedal, because the power required to overcome the wind resistance at that speed and go even faster is going to take you into the red just as quickly.

CAN I CUSTOMISE MY CASSETTE? Mixing and matching sprockets works most of the time between Shimano and SRAM, which use the same spline patterns on their freehub carriers with a few range/model year exceptions (Shimano’s Dura-Ace and Ultegra freehubs used a deeper spline for a couple of years that meant only Ultegra or Dura-Ace cassettes could be fitted).

However, bear in mind that each sprocket has ramped teeth that work in conjunction with the ramped teeth on its neighbouring sprocket. If the ramping doesn’t match between sprockets, the chain won’t shift as smoothly, although it will certainly still shift. Shimano took years to come up with

the Hyperglide system so don’t send cycling back to the dark ages of unramped teeth with a random collection of ratios! Most of the time the biggest sprockets come either pinned together or fixed to a lightweight carrier, so tinkering with them will not be possible.

CAN I FIT AN EVEN SMALLER INNER RING ON MY COMPACT CHAINSET? A compact chainset, whether from Shimano, SRAM or Campagnolo, has a BCD (bolt circle diameter) of 110mm. However, SRAM and Shimano rings will not fit the Campag chainset. Just to be awkward – or cool and aloof, take your pick – this has one of its bolts slightly offset so you need specific ‘rings. Shimano’s four-arm chainsets – used for 11-speed Ultegra and Dura-Ace – won’t take regular five-hole compact chainrings.

Compacts are designed for a 34t inner ring, but French company Specialités TA makes a 33 that will fit most five-arm compact cranks. TA and Stronglight make various sizes of aftermarket chainrings for most varieties of chainset, so it’s possible to go bigger if you’re feeling strong and want to fit ‘racing’ gears to your compact chainset.

A ‘standard’ racing chainset from Shimano or SRAM has a BCD of 130mm.

The smallest inner ring one of these will accept is a 38t. Going the other way, Bradley Wiggins rode a 58t TA chainring to a 130BCD Shimano Dura-Ace chainset to victory in the world time trial championship.

24

GOING ONE LOWER

WORDS RICHARD HALLETT

25

Suppose even 34x32 isn’t low enough for that killer climb waiting 10km from the finish that features so heavily on the event organiser’s website and that the thought of a triple fills you with inexplicable dismay. Don’t worry; there’s always Super Compact. As with the 110mm BCD format now known as compact, this uses a long-established BCD – in this case 94mm. It’s smaller, obviously, and accepts an inner chain ring with as few as 29 teeth. One such is available from Specialites TA, but 30t is more readily available and is usually paired with a 46t outer. This with an 11t rear sprocket gives a top gear of 112”, which used to be a respectable top gear for racing. Turning a 32t rear, the 30t inner gives a mountain-levelling 25”. If this isn’t low enough, you may be better off walking.

In fact, you definitely will be, as walking gives your cycling muscles a chance to rest.

The real benefit of such a low gear is that it lets even moderate climbers surmount challenging climbs without having to dig too deep too early or, should they do so, when tired towards the end of a ride.

Despite their obvious attractions, super compact road chain sets are rare beasts.

French transmission specialist TA offers the Carmina and Vega cranksets; these have a detachable spider, which is available in several BCDs including 94mm. TA’s super compact chainrings run from 30t to 50t in 2t increments plus 29t.

Fabled British firm Middleburn’s attractive RO1 and RO2 cranksets are conceived along similar lines, with a detachable spider that makes it easy to offer a range of BCD formats. To fit the 94mm BCD super compact spider, Middleburn offers inner chainrings with 30, 32, 34 or 36 teeth and outers from 40 to 48 teeth in 2t increments.

When it comes to super-low road bike gearing, super compact is surely the way to go. The next BCD size down, 74mm, is surely too small for the road, isn’t it?

WWW.SPECIALITES-TA.COM WWW.MIDDLEBURN.CO.UK

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KIT

The answer to a cycling conundrum WORDS ALEX BERESFORD

The first part of Velominati’s rule number 12 states that the correct number of bikes to own is n+1 where ‘n’ is the number of bikes currently owned. Kinesis would never seek to disprove this equation – after all, which cyclist in their right mind would? – but its T2 challenges the other half of rule 12, which says the minimum number of bikes to own is three.

Here are three activities the T2 can perform at once: as it comes in at a penny under £1K, and therefore qualifies as a rideto-work scheme bike, it can be a commuter.

As it has mudguard clearance, eyelets for proper fixed mudguards, racy geometry and drop bars, it can be a winter trainer. And because when you take the mudguards off it loses a little bit of weight and looks like a ‘summer’ bike, you can do sportives on it.

There’s no reason why you shouldn’t even do a bit of evening handicap racing on it either.

The T2 is built around a double-butted semi-compact aluminium frame. It has an oversize, round-profiled down tube that keeps bottom bracket and head tube firmly in place under load. The seatstays have an

hourglass-shaped curve for a little bit of extra comfort and the muscular chainstays go from oval at the bottom bracket to round at the dropout, making up a rear triangle that is very stiff.

10-speed Shimano Tiagra works very well, with an action reminiscent of older Dura-Ace thanks to its external gear cables.

Tiagra rear derailleurs come in short or medium cage: Kinesis has specced the medium cage so it can run a 28 sprocket.

The T2’s bottom gear of 34x28 should be low enough to get most people up most hills.

Kinesis has saved money by speccing a FSA Vero chainset with external bearing cups, which is by no means sub-standard.

The brakes are Tektro long-drop calipers – again perfectly good at this price. Shimano’s R500 wheels are a great choice, with cup and cone bearings that you can service yourself and conventional J-bend spokes that are easy to work on.

The T2 feels fast and responsive, thanks in part to its impressively low weight. 19.6lb for a sub-£1K bike with mudguards is good going. It’s also very stiff, but compared

KINESIS

T2 £999.99

with similar aluminium bikes it isn’t harsh.

However, if a greater level of comfort for long rides is a priority and you find yourself in between sizes, go for the smaller one so that you get more seatpost sticking out resulting in more flex under your behind.

To sum up, this is a great bike for the price, intelligently specced so that a wide range of riders can use it for a wide range of purposes. Is it a jack of all trades and master of none? We would say it is a truly masterful winter trainer – indeed all-year-round trainer – and as a cycle scheme commuter there’s surely none better. Sportives? Absolutely.

The T2 has ‘n’ covered, unless you’re a time triallist and cyclo-crosser too. Let’s leave +1 alone… N joy!

WWW.UPGRADEBIKES.CO.UK

26

The mature Ti-lover’s choice WORDS GIL WHITNEY

Titanium is enjoying something of a resurgence at the moment, in line with the cycling boom moving beyond its honeymoon period. Many riders have done kiss-me-quick carbon and are now looking for stability and longevity. That’s not to say excitement is missing in titanium bikes – there’s just less of a public display of it, as Superavi demonstrates.

Bath-based Superavi started out on custom lugged steel bikes – probably the first option for the carbon fatigued – but fell in love with the wonder metal and is now selling bespoke titanium frames at a very competitive price thanks to a fitting process that saves money as the customer supplies the body measurements themselves via Superavi’s FFIT system.

At the last count there was only one company building titanium frames in the UK – Enigma – and that inevitably makes those frames expensive. Superavi’s Ralph Farrer, who is also an industrial product designer, does everything in the UK except the building of the frame, which takes place at a factory with over 20 years of experience

in the Far East. He makes no secret of this.

“It’s where the expertise is,” he says.

Superavi offers three versions of the Eximio, the only model at present: commuter, sportive or race. We tested the sportive version, which has a slightly longer wheelbase than the racer for extra comfort plus a proportionally shorter top tube and slightly taller head tube.

Built up with Shimano Ultegra and Deda finishing kit, the Eximio looks simple but super stylish. The welds are very neat close up; from a distance the integrated seat tube enhances its clean lines.

The seat tube system is something we hadn’t seen before and is Superavi’s signature.

Usually an integrated seat tube means you take a hacksaw to the tube. Superavi’s is far cleverer: take the saddle off and the clamp separates into two revealing a bolt head.

Undoing this releases the seatpost, which is held inside the seatpost by an expander bolt system, like a quill stem in a fork steerer. So it’s not something you can do on the fly, but then again neither is hacksawing down a seat mast. It sounds heavy but the Eximio weighs

27

S U P E R AV I

EXIMIO S £1,765 (FRAMESET) a wonderfully airy 17.2lb in this build.

To match, it has a lovely light riding quality. Some titanium frames feel disappointingly harsh and overly stiff, but this one feels like you want titanium to feel: springy and full of latent energy but comfortable. It’s worth noting that the front end, although slightly higher than that of a race bike, is rock solid on descents.

I can imagine growing old with the Eximio, although one of us would age a lot better than the other…

WWW.SUPERAVICYCLES.CO.UK

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KIT

Gripping stuff

C O N T I N E N TA L

GRAND SPORT RACE TYRE £29.95

WORDS RICHARD HALLETT

While it is tempting to choose a tyre on the basis of its suitability for racing, it is worth remembering that different criteria may apply when riding a sportive. Tyre weight may be the enemy of acceleration but it’s of marginal importance in an event where riding at a steady pace usually yields the best result and where getting a puncture can mean losing several minutes, one’s rhythm and the back wheel of that big mobile windbreaker who has been on the front for the last 10 miles.

Which brings us to a newish range of three tyres from Continental. The German manufacturer recently commissioned a new factory in China and the Grand Sport is its first fruit. Instantly recognizable as a Conti tyre, the Grand Sport features a semi-slick tread pattern similar in appearance to that of the Grand Prix 4000. Black sidewalls and sharply-styled graphics maintain the family resemblance.

Based on a 3-ply 180tpi casing, the carcass is made in 23c, 25c and 28c widths and is offered with folding bead only. The Grand Sport Light and Race both have

a single-ply anti-puncture belt of a new material named NyTech under the tread, while the Extra, the heaviest of the three, has a dual-layer belt for added protection.

The Light saves weight with a thinner tread, which, like that of the Race and Extra, uses a new compound perhaps inevitably burdened with a promising moniker, in this case PureGrip. It is positioned directly below BlackChili in the Conti tread compound hierarchy and is mixed to provide extended tread life, improved cornering grip and enhanced wet weather adhesion. Compared to compounds other than Black Chili, presumably.

The range as a whole is aimed squarely at ‘all-round racing/training performance’, which is pretty all-encompassing but also, on riding the Race in 25c format, pretty accurate in that the tyre manages a nice balance between the various demands of racing and training. It feels robust without being sluggish and rolls lightly over wet, gritty roads while offering reassuring grip in both cornering and braking. We found no cuts after several hundred miles in horribly

wet conditions and suffered just one flat, probably from a pinch.

With this in mind, it’s hard to say if the additional puncture protection afforded by the Extra is needed, although a flat at the wrong time on a hard winter training ride might alter opinion.

Lighter by 50g and comparable in ride quality to Conti’s own Grand Prix, the Grand Sport Race is about a fiver less expensive thanks to lower manufacturing costs and a less sophisticated tread compound. The Grand Sport Extra weighs and costs the same and should, in theory, offer superior puncture protection. Decisions…

WWW.CONTI-TYRES.CO.UK

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PREP

OPTIMAL SPORTIVE CADENCE Optimal Cadence and Choice of Gearing for the Sportive Rider WORDS T I M L AW S O N

PH OTO G R A PH Y WIG WORLAND

The optimal gearing for any rider largely depends upon the optimal cadence for the particular cycling discipline in question. So, what is the optimal cadence for a sportive rider and where would you look to find the answers?

There are two methods generally considered: study the practices of ‘experts’ or those proficient in road cycling and use them as a model or example - as in copy the cadence employed by the best cyclists in the discipline; or review the scientific literature and extrapolate laboratory results to field situations. In practice there are advantages and pitfalls with each of the above methods.

Laboratory studies can often lack ‘ecological validity’ in that constraints such as the need to instil scientific rigour or ensure precision of results, or the practicalities of available laboratory equipment, make it impossible to fully replicate the situation in real life. In practice it is probably an appreciation of both approaches that is most illuminating, especially if the principles of laboratory findings are considered alongside real world experience.

Fortunately, observations from power meters used in real world situations and

discrepancies observed from laboratory findings have stimulated scientific debate.

Physiologists have both sought to explain observed differences and increase the real life applicability of laboratory studies. Studies of track cycling, for example, clearly show that, as power output increases, the optimum cadence also increases; while pursuit cyclists race at around 110rpm, track sprinters typically produce maximum power at about 140rpm.

For the sportive rider, it is more useful to find the cadence that enables the optimal generation of power over a much longer period. That cadence may vary for key parts of a route such as climbs and flat sections where speed and workload may be influenced by wind direction and speed.

In simple terms the optimum cadence varies in part because, as power increases, muscle force increases unless cadence too is increased. Power is work done divided by the time taken to do it, so it takes twice the power to do a given amount of work in half the time. On a bike, power is measured as pedal torque – force on the pedals x crank arm length – times number of pedal revolutions, or cadence, so half the pedal speed requires

twice the pedal force to produce the same power output. Trying to make more power at the same cadence – for example, staying in gear while riding up a progressively steeper hill – means applying ever higher ‘pedalling torque’.

It is easy to demonstrate the effect of high torque by trying to ride up a climb very slowly in a big gear and comparing the burning sensation with riding up the same climb at the same speed with a much lower gear. One of the reasons why professional cyclists are thought to prefer higher cadences than novice riders is that the higher cadence reduces the torque subjected to the muscles and facilitates blood flow and the supply of oxygen etc. to the working muscles.

Should we copy the high pedaling rates of elite riders? Recently published research from the University of Zurich suggests that this may not be the best practice. In addition to generating useful power, pedalling has to overcome the friction of muscles and tendons, the kinetic energy of lifting the legs and ‘stabilizing wobbling masses’ and the resistance created by agonist-antagonist muscle activation. This ‘internal work’, rises dramatically at higher cadences so low

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cadences tend to be more efficient.

Whilst the friction of their muscles and tendons may not be vastly different, it is usually easy to visualize the super skinny pro tour rider having less of those ‘wobbling masses’ to soak up kinetic energy than the average sportive rider. Pedalling is also a skill that improves with repetition, so in order to benefit from the high cadences demonstrated by elite riders it is necessary to spend a lot of time practicing pedalling at high cadences.

The Zurich study was able to demonstrate an optimal cadence of 78rpm at the 4mmol ‘lactate threshold’, which occurred at 266W in a well-trained amateur subject, and to show a linear increase in optimal cadence of about 11rpm per 100W. This would suggest that, for the study

subject, even at a modest power output of around 150W an optimal cadence would be 67rpm, or well below the 90rpm of elite racers.

In practice we can see that riders often change their position and reduce cadence on climbs. Whilst cycling uphill at 7% gradient researchers found an optimal cadence which was roughly 9% less than the optimal cadence on the flat for the same power.

Perhaps surprisingly, the Zurich researchers found that cyclists produced less power when cycling uphill than on the flat. The explanation for the reduced power appears to be that more energy is lost to stabilizing those awkward ‘wobbly masses’. On a climb it is more difficult to maintain a consistent turning speed within the pedal rotation,

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meaning more internal energy losses as pedals accelerate and decelerate after top dead center.

Taking into account these findings, it is likely that the optimal sportive gear range should include ratios low enough to allow a cadence of more than 60rpm with the power output available to the rider on the steepest gradients likely to be encountered.

Remember too that pedalling is a skill that may be improved by high and low cadence drills so extra low gears may be the key to developing the skills that enable more external power. AND don’t forget the key to fast climbing is often more about reducing those awkward wobbling masses than selecting the right gear ratio.

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PREP

CAMP LIKE A PRO Why suffer at home when you can do it in the sun?

WORDS ALEX BERESFORD

The pros do it, so why shouldn’t you? That is, escape to a warm, sunny place with smooth roads, long climbs and no distractions to get a decent block of training in before the season starts. You could tough it out in the UK and do your four-hour rides in driving rain or sub-zero temperatures, but flying south and putting the miles in on a Balearic island with a group of like-minded riders is a far pleasanter and much more efficient way of getting fit. If you can clear it with the other half, this is your chance to live like Wiggins and co. for a week or two. So, if the winter ahead seems interminable and the new season miles off, putting down a deposit for a training camp can be an excellent way of keeping your motivation up. And you’ll need to, because by its very nature a training camp is tough, no matter how smooth the roads and how sunny the sun; you need to arrive fit.

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THREE OF THE BEST DESTINATIONS MOJACAR The pro teams started it. Lotto Belisol came here in 2012 and sometimes that’s all it takes for a resort or region to become a valid training camp destination for the amateurs too. Mojacar, on the coast of Andalucia in southern Spain, is very sunny, very hilly and the roads are very quiet. It is less packed with cyclists than Majorca and accommodation can be cheaper, so some cycling holiday companies, such as Wheels in Wheels, have left Majorca and are running their training camps here now.

WWW.WHEELSINWHEELS.COM

MAJORCA Majorca has traditionally been the favourite for Brits, and for good reason. It has everything a cyclist could ever want, starting with smooth roads and long climbs. It’s just the right size – not too big, not too small – so that you can get to know your way around as well as take in a bit of every type of terrain during a long ride. The island is pleasantly warm at the start of the year, with high temperatures of 15° in February and eight hours of sunshine. The rocky Serra de Tramuntana range rises along the north-western edge of the island. The climb to Puig Major, the island’s highest point, ascends from sea level to 821 metres in 14.2 kilometres at an average of six percent.

The Strava KOM for it is held by the world champion Michal Kwiatkowski. Beat that!

WWW.STEPHENROCHE.COM

TENERIFE The Canary Islands’ southerly spot off the coast of Africa, at the same latitude as the Sahara desert, means good weather is guaranteed, whereas Majorca can still be hit by snowstorms in February. Tenerife has benefited from the Wiggo effect: Team Sky famously trained on Mount Teide, which has the longest continuous climb in Europe – from sea level to 2,200 metres – before Wiggins’s stellar 2012 season. Now lots more riders – both pro and amateur – want to do the same.

WWW.POLKADOTCYCLING.COM

WHAT TO PACK • You don’t need an expensive hard case for your bike – packed correctly a soft one is fine, and has the advantage of extra space for clothing that can work as protection for the bike.

• Use pipe lagging on your frame tubes to protect them and bits of cardboard to stiffen up a soft bag. As rememeber, in the hold, your bike might be at the bottom of the pile under a lot of heavy cases!

• There’s no need to deflate your tyres. They won’t explode in the hold.

• Take a helmet to Spain, as by law cyclists have to wear them in non-urban areas.

The police occasionally enforce it with onthe-spot fines.

• Take the necessary tools to reassemble your bike, and if your multitool includes a knife don’t carry it in your hand luggage.

• Mark your saddle height with a strip of electrical tape round the seatpost so that you don’t have to re-measure at the other end.

• Don’t just take jerseys and shorts – pack leg and arm warmers, gilet, waterproof shell, a thicker base layer and full-finger gloves just in case.

• Take travel detergent for washing kit in the sink, and a length of string for a clothes line in case your room doesn’t have a balcony (ask your room mate if they’re OK with this first).

• Take chamois cream. Even if you don’t normally use it you could find back-toback long rides demand it.

• Take some spare brake blocks, which can wear quickly on a wet mountain ride.

• Get your bike serviced and fit new parts such as chain and sprockets if required. An underperforming bike can ruin your camp.

DOS AND DON’TS • Don’t go crazy too early. If you do massive turns on the front or try to drop everyone on the first day you’ll be off the back by day three.

• Do set yourself realistic targets.

If it’s hours in the saddle you’re aiming for, be honest with yourself about what you can do. Too much and you’ll return to the UK overtired and susceptible to illness.

• Don’t hit the bar in the afternoon.

On less structured camps you might arrive back at the hotel by three o’clock having done a four hour ride with a lunch stop. You have a shower and then what? A cold beer can easily turn into an eight-hour session and you’ll hate yourself the next morning when you can’t even make it to breakfast let alone ride 120km. Take a good book for those times when you feel like an early beer.

• Do have a beer in the evening. If you live like a monk all week it won’t be as much fun. After all, you’re not a pro – cycling is only your hobby and you are on holiday.

• Don’t overeat in the evening. It’s frighteningly easy at hotel buffets – usually the format for dinner on a training camp – to consume thousands of calories in a single sitting • Do listen to what your fellow campers have to say. You can learn a lot from experienced cyclists.

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RIDES

AUDAX: THE SIMPLE LIFE WORDS D AV I D A RT H U R PH OTO G R A P H Y I A N G I L B E RT S.GULPER

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David sets off to find out what an Audax is all about, and finds he quite likes it.

It’s early December, it’s cold, dark and there’s a light frost on the roads as I pull back the curtains at 5am. There are different ways to approach riding through the winter. You can shy away from riding outdoors completely when the weather isn’t favourable and hit the turbo trainer, or you can enter a 200km Audax. Guess which I did.

About two hours later I’m lining up in small pay and display car park on the edge of Tewkesbury with around 40 to 60 other cyclists about to embark on the Kings, Castles, Priests & Churches Audax. Many cyclists might be winding back the miles as they relax into the off-season, but not us, we’re looking to get a last big ride in before the end of the year, and end the season on a high.

We’re also here to find out what an Audax is all about. Audaxes have a bit of an image problem, many cyclists think they’re only for older bearded cyclists and you must ride a steel-framed bicycle, with mudguards and a leather saddlebag, and be proficient at reading a map, which of course will be attached to the handlebars. That myth is thrown straight out of the window when I look at the bikes and cyclists around me at the start of this particular Audax, it’s a real mix with just about every conceivable genre of bike on show. And there’s a lot less beards than I was expecting.

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Usually with a sportive there’s quite a bit of fanfare at the start. You know the drill, a huge mass of people set off in waves of smaller groups and most setting off like march hares. That wasn’t our experience on this Audax. Everyone was really friendly, there was none of the bravado or ego that can sometimes afflict sportives, and we quickly made companions on the road. This friendly environment made it much more welcoming and accessible for us as relative newbies into the Audax scene.

I should probably explain at this point what an Audax is. It’s simply a long ride.

That’s it, nothing special or fancy. In that sense they’re the same as a sportive, but there the similarity ends. Because while a typical sportive is slickly organised with a fully signed route, marshals at key junctions, electronic timing, full mechanical support with a broom wagon and regular feed stops, and a medal or event t-shirt when you cross the finish line, an Audax requires entrants to navigate their own way around a set route and check in at control points to stamp a ‘brevet’ card, or ticket, as they go and for food and drink, well you must be selfsufficient. Some Audaxes are more organised than others, this particular one is about as basic as they come.

We collected our brevet and route card from the organiser in the car park, and were sent on our way. Out into the darkness we headed, the assembled cyclists quickly falling into a large, reasonably well organised peloton. No hectic start of a sportive here, rather an acceptance that it’s a very long ride and there are no prizes for fast starts on offer. Pacing and conserving energy reserves are paramount if we’re all to survive to the finish.

Unlike a sportive, there’s no route signage, we must navigate ourselves. There’s always a predetermined route for every Audax, handpicked roads by the organiser.

Audax events are a good test of navigation and following route card instructions, but I opt to use a GPS computer as my main source of navigation with the route card as a backup. Most Audaxes offer GPS routes now having embraced the technology - it certainly makes life easier, but when we do miss a turn, it still pays to have some sense of where you’re riding to.

To ensure you follow the correct route, an Audax uses controls that must be ticked off on the supplied brevet card. It’s a simple format. Some of the bigger more popular Audax rides have manned checkpoints, but the low key nature of this event forgoes these in favour of a number of friendly cafe shop

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RIDES

UNLIKE A SPORTIVE, THERE’S NO ROUTE SIGNAGE, WE MUST NAVIGATE OURSELVES.

owners who, in return for some cake and tea, stamp our cards.

The other method used, when there are no manned control points, are to obtain a receipt from a shop in a selected town showing time and place. There might also be information controls where you have to answer a simple question on your Brevet card, for instance the name of the pub at the top of the high street. There are also no feed stations, you have to be self-sufficient on an Audax, which could mean carrying lots of food with you, or simply stopping at a cafe or shop whenever you fancy it. We opted for the latter and found it a please change from the usual scramble at a sportive feed station. And there are no gels here, instead all wholesome locally produced food. How refreshing.

Somewhere out on the route I became an Audax fan. By now we’d had a good taste of the format, the simplicity of the event was appealing and the focus on just riding a really good route was winning us over. Being self-reliant was initially a bit daunting but it turned out to be the best aspect, because we

could stop whenever we wanted - though we did try to limit our stops to control points.

The money we saved on the entry fee (it cost us £4) was instead blown on cake and coffee - we ate a lot of cake on the ride, something you can get away with when riding 200km.

It’s a long day in the saddle and you need to fuel adequately, and this part of the challenge we were taking very seriously.

A bit of history. The first Audax was held way back in 1897 and originated in Italy. Audax is from the Latin for bold, and Italian cyclists would embark on audacious long distance rides. Audax rides gradually

grew in popularity, and in the UK the organisation Audax UK was established in the 1970s, accelerating their popularity across the country. It’s funny how sportives have become massive in the last ten years, and none of this popularity seems to have spilled over into Audaxes, at least based on this particular event. It might be the idea that you have to be really experienced to tackle an Audax, but as our relative inexperience proves, all you need is a desire to embark on a ride that will take all day, and be able to look after yourself.

An Audax is a lot like a sportive then, just without all the bells and whistles you get on the latter, instead it’s all about the route and the distance. The glaring difference is in the choice of distances the two offer.

A typical sportive is about 100km, with some 150km or longer. Audaxes however range from 50 to 1,500km, so they’re just as accessible, and if you like riding long distances, there is a lot more choice. 200km is a popular Audax distance, it’s a good daylong ride for most reasonably fit cyclists, and they’re longer than most regular sportives.

One of the longest, and well-known Audax rides, certainly one of the longest running, is the Paris-Brest-Paris. It’s 1200km long. Yes, really. Sportif editor Richard Hallett has ridden it and he has some good stories from the ride. Not to be outdone, the UK’s equivalent length Audax is the mighty 1,400km London-EdinburghLondon. They’re both run once every four years and you have to do shorter events to qualify for a place. Many regular Audaxers will work their way through the distances, gradually working their way up to the longer challenges.

So this 202km Audax is a minnow in comparison to the longer events available, but significantly longer than any sportive I’ve ever done. Nevertheless, it’s a good introduction to the world of Audaxing, a stiff challenge make no mistake, but one that should be within the realms of achievement for most cyclists.

There’s one odd rule of Audaxes: a minimum and maximum speed limit, typically 15km/h and 30km/h respectively.

It did seem a curious one to me before the start. You can ride at your own pace, but if you arrive early at a control point there may be no-one there to stamp your brevet card! An Audax isn’t a race of course though it can be competitive if you want, instead it’s a test of your fortitude to complete the distance. You’ll be hard-pressed to trouble the maximum speed because of course that average includes any stopping time, for

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control points or eating.

One of the appeals of this ride was the opportunity to explore a part of the country I hadn’t ridden before, through Herefordshire and into the Wye Valley.

The route passed through Tenbury Wells, Ludlow (the steep climb out of this town was a particularly tough point in the ride), and headed out to Kington (the farthest point of the route), then brought us back through the Wye Valley, Wormelow Tump, and back to Tewkesbury.

It was a lovely route, full of rolling hills, long steady inclines and just a handful of steeper hills, but the whole route had a gentle flow that allowed us to keep the average speed up. The roads were mostly traffic free, a good demonstration of the organisers excellent knowledge of the local area, and we felt fortunate to have this route and country lanes shared with us. I’d happily ride it again.

Neither I nor my riding companion Stu would consider ourselves typical Audax cyclists, but we were both drawn to the distance, the simplicity and barebones approach of the event. It’s fair to say we’re not your usual Audax participants, a fact reinforced by our turning up on sub-7kg carbon fibre race bikes. Our bikes didn’t actually feel that out of place on this ride, and certainly made some of the stiffer climbs towards the tail end of the route a little less strenuous on the legs.

While Stu made no changes to his bike, I did swap the 23mm tyres for 25mm ones in search of a little more comfort. With hindsight, and especially if I was looking to do some longer Audaxes, I would probably look to trade in some of the lightness and stiffness for a bit more comfort and extra tyre clearance. And mudguard mounts, because while the weather stayed dry, we encountered a few muddy lanes (farming vehicles dragging mud from the fields onto the road) and a bit of protection from the flying mud and whatever-else-was-in-thegloop would have been welcome. Still, our bikes prove that for an Audax of this distance you don’t really need an Audax-specific bike.

The Kings, Castles, Priests & Churches has been an excellent introduction into the world of Audax riding. And we both came away hooked. We’ve done our share of sportives but we both agree that this Audax has been a far more enjoyable long distance ride. The simple no-frills approach, the navigation challenge and the self-sufficiency required, along with the great camaraderie on display from the other cyclists makes it a thoroughly enjoyable day on the bike.

I’ve had more fun than I’ve had doing any sportive.

Did I mention the cost? £4. That’s it.

Yes okay so you don’t get a goodie bag or any of the other frills you get at a sportive, but if you’re more interested in the challenge of a long route than an event t-shirt and medal, then might I suggest you give an Audax a try. You won’t regret it. One thing is for sure, we’ve got the Audax bug, and we’ve already been looking at the Audax calendar eyeing up more, and longer, Audaxes to tackle.

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AUDAX ROUTE ESSENTIALS www.aukweb.net has a calendar of upcoming events and you can list them by distance and region, to find one near to you You can enter many Audaxes online now using Paypal, but some do require sending in a printed out entry form and you’ll receive a route card in the post You’ll be supplied with a route card, but many organisers now offer GPS files so you can use a Garmin or smartphone for easy navigation A brevet card is used to record your route and controls can be manned, or simply be cafes, pubs or service stations You can ride any bike, you don’t need any special equipment - but comfort is more important than speed when riding all day You need to be self-reliant, so carry some cash for cake and tea stops Riding further is easier than riding faster, but be realistic about pacesetting Start with a short Audax and work your way up to the longer challenges Remember, anyone can do an Audax!

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RIDES

LA PEDALS DE CLIP WORDS ADRIAN BELL

S T A RT

SANT MARTI SARROCA FINISH

CASTLE OF SANT MARTI 72KM OR 47KM

A classic bike ride in Catalunya Those enterprising men who devised l’Eroica back in 1997 could barely have envisaged the impact their randonnee was going to have. A ride on old bicycles organised in an attempt to thwart a local authority’s plans to tarmac over the undulating strade bianche - the ‘white roads’ - of Tuscany has spawned a dozen imitators in several countries. l’Eroica has created a new classic race in the professional racing calendar and a new adjective for the English language, as well as giving precision to the notion of a classic road bicycle (pre-1987 tech comprising brazed steel frame, down-tube non-indexed levers, exposed brake cables, and pedals with toe clips and straps define the “Eroica bike”). It has also given it romance: more

than any other event in the cycling world, this autumnal ride over those ancient gravel roads has fomented a nostalgia for that period in cycling history.

I rode it several years ago, inspired by [Sportif editor] Richard Hallett’s account of riding the 2004 event in Cycling Weekly. He really made a meal of the heroic bit, riding 200 kilometres on a double fixed-wheel 1932 Raleigh Record. I cannot remember how many times he said he stopped on the hills to switch the wheel round. [More than 40 – ed.] I rode a more amenable multi-geared 1960 Hetchins, and used it again earlier this year in one of those classic cyclo-tourist events that have emerged in the image of l’Eroica.

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MEDIEVAL HEROICS La Pedals de Clip is a beautiful run through the Penedès region of Catalunya.

Inland from the coast and exactly mid-way between Barcelona and Tarragona, this is wine-growing country, remarkably similar in appearance, to Tuscany and offering the same mix of undulating narrow country roads with occasional stretches where the tarmac gives way to compacted earth between the vineyards. It starts and finishes in the medieval village of Sant Martí Sarroca and gives you the choice of two routes – of 72 and 47 kilometres – which divide after the lunch stop at the modern, extraordinarily elegant bodega of Miguel Torres (you might well have seen bottles of their Viña Sol in English supermarkets). Whichever you take, you cannot avoid the fierce final kilometre, which climbs steeply through the village and up to the old castle and Romanesque church.

This was the fourth edition of the event, which began in 2011 with just eight local enthusiasts simply enjoying a day’s ride on classic bicycles through their own countryside. But with good publicity, sponsorship (including that of Brooks), the

boundless enthusiasm of its organiser, Carles Sol (a man with two Eroicas in his legs) and an impressive website, their number has grown exponentially, so that this year there were close to 300 – mainly Catalans, of course, and Spaniards from the north east of the country, with a fair smattering of French and at least two other Englishmen. With the usual exhortation organisers of these events make to wear traditional clothing in keeping with the era of their bikes, Kas, Kelme and La Casera jerseys were, not surprisingly, much in evidence.

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RIDES

KAS, KELME AND LA CASERA JERSEYS WERE, NOT SURPRISINGLY, MUCH IN EVIDENCE.

TRIBUTE RIDE Catalunya has always been one of the two major centres of cycling sport in Spain.

The annual Volta a Catalunya, first run in 1911, is one of the oldest international stage races in the calendar (it will celebrate its 95th edition in 2015), and the region has produced many fine riders over the years.

That heritage is something La Pedals de Clip aims to celebrate: its website is explicit that one purpose of the ride is “to be able to pay tribute to the ex-cyclists who, in years gone by, gave us so much excitement, and to be able to share the road and those emotions with them.”

The 2013 event officially paid homage to two great Catalan riders – the sprinter Miguel Poblet (who had died only a month

previously) and the still spritely, 84-year-old Vicente Iturat, both of whom won a string of grand tour stages in the 1950’s. This year the man honoured was Jaume Mir, a man who had spent a lifetime as a mechanic and soigneur in a dozen major teams. And the event itself was honoured by the presence and participation of a number of major Spanish riders from the past.

If you want a flavour of the La Pedals de Clip, turn to its website (www. lapedalsdeclip.cat), which offers a variety of videos and a host of evocative photographs.

You’ll see the date for 2015 has now been fixed: Sunday 26th April, and you can sign up from February onwards.

Ride it; you cannot but enjoy the day.

40 WORDS ALEX BERESFORD PH OTO G R A P H Y S P O RT I V E P H O T O

HELL OF THE ASHDOWN How hell hotted up

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R E T RO

The Hell of the Ashdown is the earlyseason event to do, thanks to a wonderful route that swoops off the North Downs into Sussex and takes a brief sojourn into Surrey before climbing back to the higher ground of Biggin Hill in Kent. That’s certainly not the only climb – at the halfway point is Kidds Hill, aka ‘The Wall’, a mile at an average of nine per cent that gradually ramps up like a ski jump. Kidds was considered too steep for the Tour de France when it visited the Ashdown Forest in 1994.

The Hell of the Ashdown sells out every year. It boasts electronic chip timing, massages and a hot meal in the dining room of the school it borrows for its HQ. Every turn is waymarked and there are marshals at every junction. For 2015, National Escort Group motorcycle outriders will be on the course, Sidcup Cycle Centre mechanics will be on hand at the HQ and on the road and sports nutrition company OTE will supply energy drinks, gels and bars. It costs £30 to enter (at least half of the event’s profit goes to a designated charity). But it hasn’t always been this way.

HOTA, as it’s affectionately known, was once a reliability trial put on by the Catford CC. Reliabilities are traditional nofrills events where you simply turn up to a village hall and pay around £5 to ride. You estimate the time it will take to cover your chosen distance (there’s usually a choice of two), which is written on the route card you are handed, and the timekeeper sets you off with a group of riders with similar estimated times. There are no waymarks, no marshals, just one or two points by the roadside where you get your route card stamped and a hot cup of tea from an urn. As reliabilities take place in the winter, the hot cup of tea is always a highlight.

The reliability aspect of a reliability trial is not so relevant these days, when bikes generally do not fall apart (though of course riders still do). But all through the 20th century the ever-present risk of equipment failure made cycling considerably more challenging. Alongside Catford CC’s, there were – and still are – reliabilities promoted by fellow south London clubs the Old Portlians CC and the Sydenham Wheelers that mostly used the same climbs. This unholy trinity of rides was a surefire way to get fit fast after an inactive Christmas. They used to attract the top roadmen from the region, who would treat them as race-pace workouts.

But it was the Catford event that had the reputation for attracting the very best riders of the 1980s such as continental pro Sean Yates. However, despite the quality of the entry fields, numbers were dropping. In 2006 only 80 riders turned up, and it was at that point that the club president at the time, Rik Vandieren, decided something had to be done. Vandieren came up with the name, a tongue-in-cheek reference to ParisRoubaix, the Hell of the North, while fellow Catfordian Mike Morgan created the deviland-flames graphics for the rebranding.

The first year of the new event saw 350 cyclists ride, in 2008 that number doubled and in 2009 the maximum 1,000 entered – though that year the event was run in a blizzard, nowhere near that number started and even fewer finished.

Now the event is capped at 1,500 riders and it’s a very different experience from the reliability trial days, not just for the riders but for the organizers, too. “Having to find 58 marshals is not easy,” says Catford CC president and 2015 Hell of the Ashdown organiser Steve Airey, “but our designated charities usually help us out. Leonard Cheshire Disability, who are supporting this year, will supply 20 and Chartwell Cancer Trust, last year’s charity, are supplying some again this year in return for an extra donation.”

And unlike the old days, while staying upright in wintry conditions was part of the challenge, sportivistes prefer not to risk falling off. Last year black ice on Hogstrough, one of the early descents, caused a few riders to come a cropper, a few of them – perhaps a little unfairly – blaming the organisers. “I’ve created a better ice route this year,” says Airey. “If there’s ice we’ll take them out on main roads through Biggin Hill and down Westerham Hill.”

This year, for the first time, the Catford CC are offering a training programme via Trainsharp, Sean Yates’s company, for an

extra £10.99. “Just over a third of the riders who have entered have signed up for that,” says Airey. “We weren’t expecting that.

And all the money from that is going to be donated to the charity as well.”

If you’d told Sean Yates back in the 1980s that the Catford reliability would in 30 years’ time be a highly organised event with all mod cons that he himself would be training cyclists for, he would have laughed in your face and ridden off into the distance.

Which is what he would have done anyway.

The 2015 edition is on February 22.

WWW.HELL.GB.COM

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KIDDS WAS CONSIDERED TOO STEEP FOR THE TOUR DE FRANCE WHEN IT VISITED THE ASHDOWN FOREST IN 1994

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SKILLS

TOP TIPS “Don’t be a Fred” as the great Sean Kelly once said after spotting a rider with dust caps and valve washers still in place. All new inner tubes come with them but leaving them off when you replace a tube makes for much quicker and easier removal later after a puncture on a ride, especially with cold hands.

You should always check the inside of the tyre after a puncture for any sharp objects that might have led to the problem but be ultra careful, especially in winter.

Numb nerves can mean nasty cuts on any glass stuck in the tyre as you just can’t feel things properly.

CLINCHER TYRE FITTING An awkward task made easy WORDS RICHARD HALLETT

Removing – and fitting - a clincher tyre is, for most cyclists, a regular maintenance procedure. It’s also one that many find challenging, if not nearly impossible, to the extent that some people avoid riding alone in case they get a puncture. With the correct technique, however, this feared task turns out to be as quick and easy as the inventor of the clincher intended.

It’s a happy fact that, in most cases, it is possible to do the job any old how, which has led many commentators to conclude that one method is as good as another. When all goes well this may be so, but not when it comes to the problem we all hate; getting that last bit of a tight-fitting tyre over the rim. This is where the right approach not only makes life a lot easier but will save valuable time during an event.

What, then, is the secret to the ‘correct’ technique?

The basic principle of the clincher or ‘wired-on’ pneumatic tyre is that the rim

and the tyre beads are concentric when the tyre is inflated. The circumference of the rim flange is greater than that of the bead, holding it securely in place. To ensure that both beads can be fitted and located without using force, one bead of the tyre must sit in the depression or trough in the centre of the rim, providing enough slack on the other side for the bead to pass over the flange.

A deeper trough means more available slack and easier tyre fitment or removal.

Conversely, the valve stem, placed in the middle of the rim trough, prevents the loosely fitted tyre reaching the trough’s lowest point and limits the amount of slack available to get the other bead over the rim, making it more difficult. So, if you have a tight-fitting tyre, finish fitting it at the valve to ensure that the maximum amount of slack is available right at the end of the process when it is needed. Similarly, start removal of a tyre at the valve so the bead is as slack as possible.

Simple; and the rest is even easier.

44

45

TO REMOVE A TYRE STEP ONE

Deflate the tube and press the tyre, on the side to be opened, inwards to the centre of the rim at the point opposite the valve.

STEP TWO

1

Insert a lever either side of the valve and press inwards to pull a short stretch of bead over the rim; this should be long enough to ensure that the bead does not snap back inside the rim.

STEP THREE

Remove one lever and insert it again further from the valve before pulling another stretch of bead over the rim. From this point, the bead will pull easily over the rim. Job done.

GLOSSARY CLINCHER

2

The type of tyre most commonly fitted to sportive bikes where, like a car tyre, the carcass is held onto the rim by interlocking with the wheel rim when the tyre is inflated.

TYRE BEAD

The continuous wire or Kevlar cord that runs around the tyre edge and locks under a lip at the rims edge on both sides.

FLANGE

The vertical surfaces on the rim. The outside of the flange provides the braking surfaces and the inner side incorporates the lip to hold the tyre bead.

T RO U G H

The channel in the centre of the inside of the rim between the two flanges.

‘OPEN’ SIDE

3

The bead of the tyre being fitted that is NOT currently sitting in the trough.

•

SKILLS

1

3

2

TO FIT A TYRE STEP ONE

Install one of the tyre beads on the rim so it sits between the two rim flanges. It is good practice to align the label on the tyre with the valve hole. In the event of a puncture, this will make it easier to locate any sharp item in the tyre once the hole is found in the tube – or vice versa… Leave the tyre on a rear wheel open on the side away from the cassette to keep the tube away from oil and grease.

STEP TWO

Inflate the tube enough to give it shape but no increase in size. This makes it more manageable and ensures it won’t get pinched

4

between the tyre and rim as you fit, which invariably results in a puncture when the tyre is inflated. From the ‘open’ side of the tyre, insert the valve through the valve hole in the rim and then push the tube into the resulting pocket formed by the inside of the unfitted tyre, working away from the valve with both hands and easing the tube over the rim until it is snug inside the tyre all the way around.

STEP THREE

Starting from a point opposite the valve, press the ‘open’ side tyre bead behind the rim flange so it locates under the lip or ‘hook’. Work away from the start point in both directions at the same time using your thumbs, pressing the tyre, with the tube inside, into place as described until a small section of bead remains stretched across the outside of the rim either side of the valve.

STEP FOUR

Now let some air out again and push the bead opposite the valve into the trough.

This will give a bit more slack in the bead, which can now be pressed outwards and over the edge of the rim back at the valve.

As it goes over the edge, press the valve upwards into the tyre to ensure the tube doesn’t get pinched between tyre and rim, and then inflate to the desired pressure.

In a very few cases, the bead will prove too tight for thumb pressure alone, even using this sequence. If so, for the last bit insert a lever under the bead, taking great care not to pinch the tube, and ease the bead over the rim. Try not to let anybody see you do it…

04

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•

REGIONAL NEWS SOUTH

BESPOKED UK HANDMADE BICYCLE SHOW 17-19TH APR 2015

The Bespoked UK Handmade Bicycle Show has expanded rapidly in the few years since it first started, and after a brief year at the London Velodrome in 2014, returns to its roots in Bristol in 2015.

Taking up residence in Brunel’s Old Station will be some of the most revered frame builders, from long-running frame builders to the new school of young builders injecting a new lease of life into custom handmade bicycles. It’s a show where you see the weird and wonderful alongside each other, the most eclectic collection of bicycles, that you’re ever likely to see in one room.

NEWS News and events from around the country

SOUTH

HELL OF THE ASHDOWN 22ND JAN 2015

SOUTH

BARN CROSS JAN 31ST + FEB 28TH 2015

The Hell of the Ashdown has become a hugely popular early-season sportive in recent years, but go back a few more years and it used to be a reliability trial as we reveal in Retro this issue. Keen to shake off the associated cobwebs of reliability trials, the organisers upgraded it to a sportive and it has since become a must-ride event for many cyclists in the South East.

You get a good tour of the best roads, and climbs, in Kent, and it’s a properly tough route. The weather in January can throw up anything, it’s been battered by snow and ice in the past, but it could equally be mild and damp. If you can get a place, it’s a great way to kickstart your year and burn off some of the Christmas excess.

Here’s an event unlike anyone at Sportif magazine has ever come across before. It’s called ‘Barn Cross’ and that really is what is it, a cyclo-cross event in a barn. Okay we don’t expect it to be the typical sort of event you’ll be interested in, but if you do have a penchant for trying something a bit different, this could be right up your street. Or barn.

The upside is that, as it’s inside a barn, it doesn’t matter how bad the weather is outside, you’ll stay dry and we would imagine mud-free too. It’s taking place in Southampton at Quob Stables Equestrian Centre costs £15. If you said 2015 was the year to trying something completely different, get yourself entered into Barn Cross and stick to your promise.

WWW.HELL.GB.COM

WWW.DCCYCLES.CO.UK/BARN-CROSS-RACE 06122014-29470-P.ASP

As well as being able to see some of the most interesting and exquisitely produced bicycles, the show will also be holding a full menu of talks, with legendary figures in the cycling world such as Mike Burrows talking about the history of the bicycle, to Isla Rowntree sharing her insight into building a custom bicycle. Tony Corke will be talking bike fit and Donhou Cycles will be hosting a framebuilders workshop tour.

WWW.BESPOKED.CC

48 SOUTH

EVANS CYCLES SPORTIVE CROSS Cyclo-cross sportives are increasingly popular in the UK with quite a number now available to choose from and they’re a good alternative to cycling on slick roads in the winter. They combine the mass participation element of sportives with the off-road terrain of cyclo-cross rides. Cyclo-cross bikes are favoured but there’s nothing to stop you turning up if you’ve got a mountain bike in the shed, that’s just fine.

There are all the trimmings you’d get at a road sportive, such as a marked route, electronic timing and feed stations, and a choice of route distances between 23 and 52 miles. They’re running all through winter, with the last two on January 25th and February 15th, taking place at Newbury and Gatwick respectively. And as with the other Evans sportives, there’s the chance to demo Garmin computers and even some Louis Garneau clothing - well saves you getting your own kit muddy!

WWW.EVANSCYCLES.COM/PAGES/RIDE-ITSPORTIVE-CROSS-EVENTS

SOUTH

JOIN GERAINT THOMAS AT THE DUNKERQUE ROUBAIX SPORTIVES APRIL 25-26TH 2015 Fancy riding some cobbled roads with Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas? Of course you do.

We certainly want to. This event, organised

by HotChillee, is a unique 165km sportive including nine sectors of Paris-Roubaix pavé to conquer along the way, all with rolling road closures, and finishing in the iconic Roubaix velodrome, and have the opportunity to take a closer look at the famous showers, with the winning names on plaques of each shower.

Thomas, a former winner of the junior Paris-Roubaix was joined last year by senior race winner from 2004 Magnus Backstedt so this really is a cobble bashing with the big boys.

The high entry cost of £495 does at least guarantee champagne when you cross the finish line, full professional team support along the route, accommodation and transfer back to the start in Dunkerque.

WWW.DUNKERQUE-ROUBAIX.COM

49

SOUTH

LONDON BIKE SHOW 12-15TH FEB 2015 The Excel Centre in London will be brimming with the shiniest new bikes and kit in February as the London Bike Show once again returns. It’s rapidly become a mustvisit show since it launched just a handful of years ago, and this year there’ll be some big brands such as Giant, Hoy, Mavic, Cannondale, Scott, Boardman and Canyon there for you, showing their latest models.

There’ll also be many smaller and interesting brands and companies displaying their latest wares too.

If you’re in the market for a new bike, getting to ride a bike can help inform your

buying decision, so the demo track will be a popular attraction. A 500m test track will give you the chance to ride one of the many 2015 bicycles that will be on standby, from road, commuter to electric bikes. There’ll even be a special test track for children too.

The show will also feature Training Hub, interesting if you are keen to find out more about improving your fitness, with professionals on hand to dish out expert advice, spin sessions and a personalised training programmes available.

WWW.THELONDONBIKESHOW.CO.UK

•

REGIONAL NEWS CENTRAL

WIGGLE NO EXCUSES SPORTIVE 21ST FEB 2015 Starting from the Huntingdon Racecourse, the popular Wiggle No Excuses sportive is back for another year, providing a really good way to drag you out of winter hibernation. The event is now in its 4th year and once again the route delves into the heart of Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire, providing both a picturesque route and one that will test the legs. How much you want to test your legs it your choice, as with a standard 45 mile or epic 80 mile route options, you can choose just how much suffering you want to endure.

CENTRAL

THE RAWLINSON BRACKET 22ND FEB 2015 A 90km route packing in some of the best hills Warwickshire has to offer, with some in excess of 14% gradient ensuring you’ll want to bring your climbing legs, this is a really good looking pre-season leg tester of a sportive, and a challenge day out in itself.

The event is run in memory of local cyclist Nick Rawlison who tragically died of suspected arrhythmic heart defect at the tender age of 30 in February 2012 and all proceeds from the event will benefit SADS UK, a charity run to raise awareness of sudden arrhythmic death syndrome and cardiac risk affecting young and middle age people.

If the 90km route sounds a bit daunting, and we’re inclined to agree, then there is a slightly easier and flatter 48km route option.

Organisers say to expect a mix of unclassified roads, B-roads and some quite A-roads, and of course the route will be signposted and there’ll be ample parking and refreshments at the event HQ. WWW.THE-RAWLINSON-BRACKET.CO.UK

CENTRAL

HUMAN RACE FORGO CLOSED ROAD AT ETAPE CYMRU

Anyone who has ridden the Etape will know that closed road sportives are fantastic for participants as it means increased safety with more space on the road, but it seems the organisers of the Wiggle Etape Cymru are being forced to forgo road closures for the 2015 edition of the event. It’s been run for four years with closed roads, but after much complaining from local residents about the disruption, they’ve sought to reduce the impact on certain areas so it’ll take place on open roads, or partially open roads.

Readers will remember that in 2014 the event targeted by saboteurs with tacks thrown onto the road. You might even have been there and seen the attempted sabotage with your own eyes. That has forced the organisers to seek a new venue, and as yet they haven’t revealed the details of the new route, other than to say it will start at Bangor-on-Dee racecourse in Wrexham, North Wales. Anyone hoping to ride it should keep an eye on the event website below, and be prepared for an 85-mile route over challenging terrain.

WWW.HUMANRACE.CO.UK/EVENTS/CYCLING/ ETAPE-CYMRU

CENTRAL

PERFORMANCE CYCLES WINTER MINI-SPORTIVE SERIES Start 2015 as you mean to continue, with an early days sportive, but one that strips the event back to basics and keeps the entry cost really low (just £8.50) whilst still providing a thoroughly good day out on splendid Cotswolds roads with full signposted routes.

The Performance Cycles events have become really popular over the years with many drawn to a bare bones approach that places the emphasis on having a good ride, with a low-key relaxed atmosphere. There is always some of the best riding to be had in the Cotswolds, definitely making it worth the drive if you’re in the south or central regions.

The series runs from February and March providing monthly goals, something to regularly aim for and motivate you to get the miles in. You can take your pick of routes, 45 or 65 miles depending on your level of fitness, but the nice thing about the routes is that you can generally decide at the split about halfway around the course.

There’s ample car parking at the event HQ , hot food ,drinks and cake available at the finish, route cards if you need them, GPX routes for your Garmin, changing rooms and mechanical support.

WWW.PERFORMANCECYCLES.CO.UK

N O RT H

TOUR DE YORKSHIRE SPORTIVE ANNOUNCED As expected the inaugural Tour de Yorkshire will feature an accompanying sportive run along the route of the day 3 of the new ASO backed race.

The Tour de Yorkshire has teamed up with owners of The Dragon Ride, Human Race to deliver the event. Thousands are expected to ride and entries have already been opened on the Tour de Yorkshire website.

“The Tour de France has had a sportive alongside it for many years and it’s a unique experience for amateur riders to ride at L’Etape,” said 5 time Tour de France winner Bernard Hinault, “so to have this similar experience available at the Tour de Yorkshire will be magnifique and something all keen riders will want to be part of ” WWW.LETOUR.YORKSHIRE.COM

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